


Paris Calling

by NewLeeland



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - World War II, F/M, Fluff, Reunions, Romance, Spies, World War II, happy endings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-25 12:16:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10764105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewLeeland/pseuds/NewLeeland
Summary: Happy Endings aren't something a French partisan and an English spy expect during a time when Europa is engulfed in the greatest war mankind has ever known. But even the longest wars end one day. And for some people, the end of the war is the beginning of something new.Inspired by "We’ll Meet Again On The Western Front" by randomdreamer01 and my (hopelessly optimistic) take on how this story of Jyn and Cassian during World War II could have ended.





	Paris Calling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [randomdreamer01](https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomdreamer01/gifts).
  * Inspired by [We’ll Meet Again On The Western Front](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9487148) by [randomdreamer01](https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomdreamer01/pseuds/randomdreamer01). 



> It is a miracle indeed, but I'm finally publishing a story of my own. Well, not really no. I'm posting a story based upon something another much more gifted author wrote.
> 
> Originally, I wrote this after reading " We’ll Meet Again On The Western Front" by randomdreamer01. As someone who dislikes open endings (the story is brilliant, it's just me who can't deal with that stuff), I sat down the next day and started typing about how I would want their story to continue. Two months after that day, I finally got to publish it.
> 
> It is nowhere near the quality of the original story and I thought about not publishing it at all. But I also disliked the thought of having another document on my laptop that would one day be forgotten, so here we are.
> 
> If you like the ending, you can treat this like some sort of sequel to "We'll Meet Again". If you don't, I'm sorry for wasting your time and you're of course free to think about your own ending.
> 
> Somehow, this story got way bigger than I intended it to be and I added a ton of background stuff. So, maybe it has become a story of its own. Once again, it is what you would like it to be.
> 
> My heartfelt thanks to randomdreamer01 who allowed me to actually publish a story related to one of her own. You should really go and read her stories. They will make you feel, I guarantee it. And her writing is brilliant.
> 
> So enough for now. Further notes about historic events, facts and of course translations for the few non-English parts can be found in the notes at the end of the chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

They do meet again in Paris.

* * *

Not immediately after the city is freed from her occupation. There is too much to do for the both of them still.

He still serves with his SS unit, sabotaging their fight against the advancing Allied forces on every step as they retreat out of France and back into Germany itself. There are a few close calls - too close for his liking, but he can’t help it, can he? - and it’s a cold February night when his participation in the war and his time behind the enemy lines comes to an end.

* * *

In her sector, fighting continues, although their position improves with every day. More volunteers join their ranks, finally convinced that this fight can indeed be won. She does not know how to deal with it: Be glad that they decided to take a stand and help the rest of her loyal men survive this war and actually have the chance to return home to their families - if they are still alive? Or condemn them for doing nothing when they were really needed and just joining know because it is somehow safe?

There is no such thing as safety in a war. They all realize that after a German bombing raid hits the little town that serves as their headquarters.

39 partisans are killed, Bodhi suffers a serious head injury that will change his life forever. They strike back just as hard, but while vengeance feels good, it does not bring back those who were lost.

The day the Nazis are driven out of all France, they celebrate. It starts as a jovial party, one of those you would think one forgets after walking through hell for six years. De Gaulle’s voice can be heard from a radio, congratulating all French and thanking them for their fighting spirit and endurance.

She does not know what to think about him either. For Baze, he is just another power-craving man who used the dire situation his country was in to feed his own ambitions. Chirrut is more hopeful. Jyn forces herself not to think about it too much. They should be relieved, not worried.

Than, the evening turns blue. Someone raises a toast to all those who deserved to be here, but aren’t. Cassian is on her mind in an instant, he basically shatters the walls her mind had built to keep him in and prevent her weakness from being shown. Baze knows, Bodhi knows and Chirrut wears his omniscient, benevolent smile every time she thinks about the agent in her presence. It’s unnerving. She chides herself for thinking about him. He might as well be alive and celebrating. Her thoughts should be with those men and women she knew longer than him, better than him. Who fought and died beside her, for her. But she can’t, at least not entirely.

They fought this war for their freedom. That includes the freedom to think. So why should she feel bad for letting her mind wander and think about him?

* * *

It is a bitter irony, he muses and can’t stop the laughter that escapes his mouth. Getting shot for being a member of the SS. If those American soldiers only knew who he really was.

As the line him up at the wall, his thoughts drift to her. Again. But he is about to die, so why not? His work is done, the war is won. It is only a matter of time. Cassian always knew that his own chances surviving it were modest. Of course it is a bitter fate to be killed by his own allies, days away from the final victory. But he got to know her.

That’s worth something.

It is not a sudden miracle that saves him. Not an old friend from his days in the states who suddenly recognizes him and pulls him away from the other prisoners that are lined up beside him, some of them trembling, some of them defiant.

The commanding officer - some young Captain, barely a day over twenty - somehow reaches the conclusion that murdering these men would make him no better than them.

He is still young. Idealistic.

In war, these things usually get you killed.

Now they ensure that Cassian lives to see another day.

They identify him later, when he finally manages to convince one officer to check his background. The utter ashamedness his captors display when the realize who he really is is almost worth the days in the prison camp. But he’s not one to hold grudges.

These get you killed as well.

So when he departs for London and the young Captain stands on the tarmac, babbling apology number 26, he does something he usually never does. He pulls him into a hug, thanks him and told him he did a good job. They part as friends. That’s something to ponder about another time.

* * *

Back in London, the man who became his superior after he had to leave Jyn is different than the image he had in his head. Of course, they’ve never met before. But General Draven is grateful for his work, although he struggles to tell him that. Cassian doesn’t care, not too much. He never did it for gratitude.

He leaves Draven’s office with a job offer, a handshake and the knowledge that all his achievements will never lead to a medal or some sort of official recognition. He’s fine with that too.

Maybe even more because on his way out of the building he runs into someone.

Lieutenant Jarošov is not the reason his heart makes a jump in his chest. They only met each other once, early in the war, even before Cassian was sent to France. The Czechoslovakian played the same role he did, infiltrating Nazi ranks to spread chaos from within.

Little does he know that unlike France, his country will still be under occupation after the war.

The last time he and the young man met, the Lieutenant was carrying a message from Generalmajor Hans Oster, detailing the planned German invasion of the Netherlands. The Dutch never believed him, Oster or even their own military attaché.

The 884 civilians who perished in the Nazi bombing of Rotterdam never know that a bit more trust could have saved them.

But trusting someone gets you killed in a war.

And sometimes, it saves your life.

This time, Jarošov is once again carrying a message. A personal one and for Cassian, it is no less important than the first one the Czechoslovakian carried.

He should feel bad about it, selfish. Comparing a note that brings hope for one meagre person to a letter that could have saved thousands of human beings and changed the course of this war.

But he does not.

“I was tasked with ensuring that this message reaches you”, the Lieutenant tells him, pulling out a letter that has seen better days. It is crinkled and wrinkled, even marred by some unidentifiable substance. Jarošov’s voice drowns out as he carries on about visiting Czechoslovakian exile forces in Paris and starting a conversation with a short, striking woman who asked him to share his experiences with her. And somehow, they ended up speaking about Cassian.

He hugs Jarošov too - he might be getting used to that - and once again is tempted to thank some higher force for the brain of the young man, who managed to recall his name even after five years. When he tears open the letter, he is disappointed at first. But that only shows how much he had forgotten about her. It’s now elaborate love declaration, no sentimental rambling. It’s just a place and a date.

_Café de la Paix. 2 p.m. September._

He never believed a few words could make him so happy.

_(Little does he know that the messenger receives a message of his own only hours later.)_

_(Its content are also just a few words. But they won’t make him happy.)_

_(For every good message in war and its aftermath, there are two bad ones.)_

_(But that is an entirely different story.)_

* * *

They do not kiss or hug or fall into each other's arms on that rainy Tuesday. But they do sit down and talk. About the war, about their experiences before and during the conflict. Feelings too.

He is relieved to hear that Baze and most of the others pulled through. She is glad to see he still is the man he was back then. Not broken or disillusioned, but happy and so full of life. It makes her heart ache.

She tells him about her family. How her father, a Danish engineer with English roots, met her mother, the daughter of one his professors, at Cambridge. How they travelled the world, visited France during the summer. That’s when Jyn was born. It makes sense, actually. France is her home just as much as England is.

When her mother falls ill and has to stay at home, she accompanies her father to Norway on a scientific expedition. Then, the Germans invade the country. Word reaches the Eros that one Oswald Krennicz is searching for them.

Galen shudders when he hears the name of his old colleague. Although having Slavic roots, Krennicz is a firm supporter of the Nazi regime. As long as it serves his own ambitions of course.

When Krennicz finds them, Jyn fights against Svein - Galen’s old Norwegian friend - when he tries to get her to safety. He earns a black eye and various bruises for his effort, but never complains. Their trip back to England is spent in silence. Jyn fumes in anger for taking her away from her father, Svein’s lost in thoughts and fear about the fate of his old friend.

* * *

“Galen. Ich freue mich sehr, dich wiederzusehen. Dieses Versteckspiel war aber doch nicht notwendig. So… überflüssig. Es kostet uns nur Zeit, die wir Wissenschaftler anderweitig sinnvoller nutzen könnten.” Krennicz’s uniform betray his words. He stopped being a scientist or an engineer a long time ago. Engineers only work for people with power. Men in uniform hold said power.

“Was willst du, Oswald?”, Galen asks impatiently. He’s tired of this charade, tired of Krennicz’s mocking voice and full of fear for the wellbeing of Jyn, who screamed when Svein took her away. He’ll never forget the anguish in her voice and promises himself that he will do everything in his power to protect her.

Even if it means to shake hands with the devil.

One of Krennicz’s subordinates returns. “Oberführer, wir haben das Haus und den Wald durchsucht. Keine Spur von dem Mädchen.”

Galen’s smile is quickly hidden, but not soon enough. His old friend sneers. “Wir finden sie schon, Galen. Mach dir keine Sorgen.” Galen does not worry about them finding her. He worries about what they will do to her if they find her.

* * *

Jyn visits her mother once she returns to English soil, but it is not her who stays behind to take care of Lyra, the bad news about her husband throwing her into another state of depression. She can’t stay and just watch while those who are responsible for all this march across Europe, seemingly unstoppable.

So it’s Saw who promises to care for Lyra while her daughter is gone to fight. And she does fight. Words of her achievements reach as far as Cambridge, where Lyra is worried to death, but still somehow proud of this daughter of hers.

* * *

In a secret base somewhere in Eastern Europe, Galen endures Krennicz’s screams every time his daughter managed to somehow foil part of his plans.

Orders arrive for Berlin. The tables have turned. Now, Galen’s not the one they want for his skills and Jyn to keep him in line. It’s Jyn they want and her father is the hostage.

But Krennicz’s project is more important to the Reich than some partisan in France, no matter how much of an annoyance she turns out to be. It is destined to grant the Führer the final victory.

Or so Krennicz hopes.

As it turns out, it is a forlorn hope.

When the Third Reich comes crashing down, Galen is deported to a concentration camp. But as a Danish citizen and a scientist, he is not on their extermination list.

The day Krennicz dies in the burning carcass of his life’s work, Galen resigns himself that after all, death still awaits him.

Kindness is another emotion that will get you killed in war.

But Galen never stopped being a kind person. Or at least the kindest person in a Nazi camp. So when the truck carrying him and two other prisoners - a priest from Silesia and a doctor from Praha - stops working somewhere in Bavaria, they are alone with their guard and one driver.

The prisoners exchanged silent glances. Should the try to escape? Or rather play it safe and not risk their life now that the war can be over any second? It’s a decision they never have to make.

After a short conversation of their own, the guard throws his weapon, his uniform and his helmet into the roadside ditch and after a final word to his comrade departs into the woods, muttering something the German-speaking Galen believes to identify as “Mutter wartet auf mich”.

The other one - twenty-two or something - does the same, relieving himself of weapon and uniform like both of them are some sort of curse. Then he climbs into the truck and uncuffs them. The priest blesses him for finally listening to the voice of god.

They split ways two days later, the doctor departing towards his homeland, the priest towards the Austrian border. Galen and the young soldier named Georg continue northwards until they find an American tank column somewhere around Nürnberg. The German does not meet the eyes of his former prisoner when he apologizes and makes his farewells. But Galen has learned that words only have some sort of meaning if they are backed up by actions. So he hugs the young man, wishes him all the best for his own future and they walk out of each other's lives.

* * *

The Erso family reunion in Paris is as cheesy and emotional as one could think. Once the news of her father’s reappearance had reached Jyn and Cambridge, she personally travelled to England for the first time in forever.

It seems different, but it’s not her home that has changed.

It’s her.

Jyn and her mother spent the entire night catching up, exchanging stories and rejoice over the fact that after all these years apart, they still have each other.

Two days later, she leaves Cambridge again. This time, there is no fighting, Lyra feels better than she has in years. When their plane touches the tarmac in Paris, Jyn thinks of another person she would need there for all of this to be perfect.

But life isn’t perfect. Not this one.

* * *

Galen has aged, is thin and drained when he steps into the small hotel room. But he still has enough power left in him to grab his daughter and spin her around in the air like back in the days when she was a little girl and not a fearsome woman who has killed hundreds of other other human beings. Now’s not the time to worry about that. They spent several years being worried. For him, she’ll always be his little girl.

The day after that, she strolls through the streets of Paris, giving her parents some alone time. They would never admit it, but they needed it. Jyn walks aimlessly through busy streets, desperately trying to appease the voices in her head. The war is over. They are no longer in danger. She can leave them for a while without having to fear that she will never see their faces again, hear their laughter and feel their warmth.

* * *

Decades later, when her grandchildren ask how she and grandpa met, she tries to recall what made her to enter the small café with the foreign (not-French) name. She does not believe it was god or fate, she lost believe at some point during her life.

War does that do people.

So she smiles at her daughter’s son who looks so much like Cassian. She and her husband share a short glance, enough for them to communicate after years and years of knowing each other. It is all they need.

They both agreed long ago - when Jyn first knew for sure that she who had taken so many lives was carrying a new one within her - that they would spare their children from the stories of the war.

They had enough other stories to tell, about travelling the world, their friends from the old days - Baze and Chirrut, who built a little restaurant down the street. Bodhi, who became a civilian airline pilot despite all his health issues. Svein, who is now a member of the Norwegian King’s Guard. Happy stories, not tales filled with war, despair and blood.

“Well, Jannik, it all started in Paris…”, her husband’s voice, so different from the one he used during the war, starts retelling the story to his grandson, who hangs on every word Cassian says. Jyn leans back, reaches for his hand and feels the marks and scars left by years of war. It was worth it.

* * *

The man she meets in the cafe is not Cassian, but his behaviour - always alert, trying to blend in and be invisible - make him stand out like a bonfire. Perhaps she is more sensitive to such things, because no one else seems to notice.

Their conversation starts rather easily, evolves easily. He is somehow starstruck to meet such a famed partisan, but he also has stories to tell about the war. Jyn never was one for talking. But war changes people.

And it appears that talking does help sometimes.

Plus, she’s got an afternoon to waste.

At the end of the meeting, Jyn does something she promised herself never to do again: Ask for a favor. A big one. Deliver a message to someone whom she knew by name and nothing else? Who might be dead and buried in some ditch? An impossible task, even more so considering Jyn asked a stranger to carry it out. But maybe something gave away her secret, because after looking at her for a second, the young Lieutenant agreed.

When she told him the name, the man laughed. He hadn’t done so before. It was somehow pained, but now she knew it was also hopeful.

“I just happen to know him”, he said, his eyes cheerful. Jyn tried to keep her face blank, although she was silently cheering. But his survival still was in doubt. In fact, the Lieutenant hadn’t seen him for an even longer amount of time than she did.

But she had hope.

Hope is such a fragile thing.

Through Jarošov, she finally learns the fate of one of her childhood friends Maja, an exchange student from the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

Jyn survived more than a dozen blitzes during the war. Maja was killed in her first. The Nazis called it “Unternehmen Strafgericht”. Jyn could not even remotely think of something sweet Maja would have done to deserve any kind of punishment.

* * *

She never receives a reply to her letter and it hangs over the reunion with her parents like a dark cloud. Her father notices, but Jyn does not want to talk about it. They very nearly get in a fight over it, but Galen realizes that his daughter is an adult, a war veteran and different. He does not love her less for it.

But there are things she won’t tell him, not anymore.

The next day, she receives a telegram from London. She does not recognize the name, but the short message wipes out any doubts about who sent it.

_“Message delivered. Start waiting.”_

Her parents don’t ask her why she disappears every day after lunch and only returns in the late hours of the evening, sad and disappointed. But as long as her hopeful and strong self returns with each rising of the sun, they don’t push their daughter to tell them what’s bothering her.

* * *

Eight days after she started visiting the Café, her hopes have dimmed. Maybe it was just one of these wartime romances born out of desperation. She stares into the air, not realizing how he enters and sits down next to her. In war, she would have been dead. But the war is over. She does not need fancy words or love declarations. The way Cassian looks at her, the sheer happiness on his face is enough. So for several minutes, they just sit there, grinning like idiots that just can’t understand how they made it that far. 

* * *

Later that night, when they are lying in bed, they talk about the future. They both quickly realize neither of them had planned that far ahead, why should they? It would only have meant they had something left to lose.

“The General made me an offer. Apparently, spies are always in high demand. Not just during a war.”

Jyn raises her head from his chest, fixing him with a stare he could and wants to get lost in. “Partisans not so much”, is her reply. She does not need to ask more directly. Cassian understands.

“On the other hand”, he muses, “I believe I had enough of it for a lifetime.” His hand enveloped hers. “You know, I always wanted to travel. See the world.” Cassian looks at her again, not being able to comprehend why it’s him and not some better man holds her in his arms tonight.

“But alone it’s without a certain appeal. Would you happen to know someone who would like to join me?”

He’s teasing her.

Her answer is a kiss.

* * *

When he left her during the war, he dreamt for days about Jyn in a yellow dress beneath the Cambridge sky.

Sitting on his porch and looking at her playing with their grandchildren, he finds it hard to believe that two people like them settled down for a life like this.

Cassian couldn’t care less.

They had their fair share of adventures in their youth. They fought in the most terrible war mankind has ever known.

They still wake up during the night, their heads filled with images of people they killed or people they lost.

But with the time, other pictures take their places. Pictures of them all around the world (maybe not the Soviet Union or Germany, too many open wounds there). Pictures of their wedding, surrounded by friends and family. Pictures of their children and the days they were born. Pictures of peace and a life they never even dared to dream about.

Those pictures don’t always win the fight against the bad ones, just like the “good people” in life don’t always win against the “bad people”.

But they still fight. It’s enough for them. They’re survivors after all.

**Author's Note:**

> And that's it. Cheesy? Maybe. Unrealistic? Maybe. But stranger thinks have happened and my soft heart can't bear to add misery to their canon fate. So they are happy here. If you would have preferred a darker ending, there is one character in this story who got one.
> 
> The title for this story was inspired by "London Calling", a song by the British band The Clash.
> 
> History notes:
> 
> \- Generalmajor Hans Oster was a German officer, a leading figure in the German anti-Hitler resistance and deputy head of the Abwehr (German Military Intelligence). When Nazi Germany planned to invade the Netherlands, Oster even informed the Dutch military attaché in Berlin, Bert Sas, despite the fact that this could cost the lives of thousands of German soldiers. However, he thought it was neccessary to prevent even more deaths a quick German victory early in the war would bring. Sadly, his warnings were ignored. Oster was executed for treason days before the war ended.
> 
> \- Cassian nearly being executed for being a member of the SS is something that could have happened during the war. The SS themselves committed dozens of war crimes during the conflict and were therefore sometimes the target of retribution.
> 
> \- The Rotterdam Blitz was an attack carried out by the German Luftwaffe on the Dutch city of Rotterdam after the city had surrendered. 884 civilians were killed and almost the entire historic center of Rotterdam was destroyed.
> 
> \- Lieutenant Jarošov stands for the countless Czechoslovakian expatriates who fought for the Allies during the war and suffered for doing so after returning home. Czechoslovakia became a Communist state after the war and reprisals against personnel who had fought with the Allies were a common procedure. Among those executed for "treason" was General Heliodor Píka, who had supported the London-based government-in-exile headed by Edvard Beneš.
> 
> \- The Café de la Paix is a famous café located in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. It has been open since 1862.
> 
> \- The name Krennic always had some sort of Slavic ring to me, especially if you write it Krennić, Krennič or Krennicz. Oswald is German first name and I chose the Polish-sounding name "Krennicz" for him in this story. In my headcanon, Krennicz is from Silesia, a region where German settlers had lived for hundreds of years. So his name is Polish, but he has some German roots and has therefore managed to reach a high position despite some Slavic heritage.
> 
> \- Oberführer ("senior leader") was a SS rank somewhere between Colonel and Brigadier General.
> 
> \- Svein is actually Saw Gerrera and he has a very different role in this story. The Nazi invasion of Norway (Operation Weserübung) began on April 9, 1940.
> 
> \- Galen being Danish is a reference to the nationality of his actor Mads Mikkelsen. Jyn Erso is born in prison on Vallt in the Star Wars universe. Her birth circumstances aren't so dire in this story, but she still comes into the world in a different country than those her parents are from.
> 
> \- Maja (Maia) is a friend of Jyn back when she was with Saw's partisans. Unternehmen Strafgericht (Operation Retribution) was a German Luftwaffe attack on the Jugoslavian capital of Beograd in April 1941. Despite being an "open city" and therefore no defensive efforts made by the Yugoslavians, the Nazis still bombed it, killing several thousand civilians. The commanding officer, Generaloberst Alexander Löhr, even gave the order for the first wave of bombers to set the city on fire so that later attack waves during the night would find their targets.
> 
> Translations:
> 
> \- “Galen. Ich freue mich sehr, dich wiederzusehen. Dieses Versteckspiel war aber doch nicht notwendig. So… überflüssig. Es kostet uns nur Zeit, die wir Wissenschaftler anderweitig sinnvoller nutzen könnten.” -- Galen. I'm delighted to see you again. All that hiding was unneccessary. So... redundant. It only costs us time. Time scientists like could use for better purposes.
> 
> \- “Was willst du, Oswald?” -- What do you want, Oswald?
> 
> \- “Oberführer, wir haben das Haus und den Wald durchsucht. Keine Spur von dem Mädchen.” -- Oberführer, we have searched the shack and the woods. We found no trace of the girl.
> 
> \- “Wir finden sie schon, Galen. Mach dir keine Sorgen.” -- We'll find her, Galen. Don't worry.
> 
> \- “Mutter wartet auf mich”. -- Mother is waiting for me.
> 
> Thank you for reading! :)


End file.
